CARBON COALITION, TOO?

The Carbon Coalition Against Global Warming started life in February 2006. On 5 July, 2007 a news report in The Land announced the arrival of another group calling itself The Carbon Coalition. The potential for confusion is high. The two organisations exist for opposite and competing purposes. The Original CC campaigns for the creation of a market in soil carbon credits. The Counterfeit CC campaigns against carbon markets and denies climate change is happening. .

Monday, July 9, 2007

The Carbon Coalition is a voluntary group of individuals concerned about the extentto which carbon is wrongly vilified in Western societies, particularly in government,the media, and in some business circles. We aim to restore balance and reason tothe carbon debate, and to explain and defend the key role of carbon in production ofmost of our energy for heat, light, and transportation, and all of our food.Members and supporters include:· consumers concerned about the future availability and cost of energy andfood.· taxpayers concerned at the spiraling costs of subsidies for fixing nonproblemsin the carbon cycle or propping up inefficient alternatives to carbonfuels.· those who understand, support, work in, or invest in the carbon industries -farming, fishing, forestry, food, coal, oil, gas, transport and energy.· farmers who know about the important role of plants, soil and carbon dioxidein naturally recycling carbon from the atmosphere to plants and back to ourfood chain.· people with knowledge and understanding of the dominant influence of thesun, oceans, clouds and cycles in the solar system in affecting climate andweather on earth.· people alarmed at the politicization of science and who want our youngpeople to grow up in a world in which truth and science are valued.· people concerned at the way this issue is being used to fill our children withfear and loathing and our adults with guilt and anger.

Carbon Is Our Key Resource

Carbon is the most important resource on earth for all mankind. It is the essence of:· all food - proteins, fats, carbohydrates, sugars and alcohols· all hydrocarbon fuels - coal, petroleum and natural gas· all humus and organic matter in the soils· all life on land, in the soil, and in the rivers and oceans (apart from strangecreatures around volcanic vents in ocean deeps).Carbon dioxide is a non-toxic, colourless gas that forms a tiny proportion of ouratmosphere. Man’s contribution to atmospheric carbon dioxide is small and dwarfedby natural emissions from the oceans, volcanoes and from other natural sourcessuch as decaying vegetation, wild animals, insects, termites, bacteria and bushfires.The Battle for CarbonLife on earth is a battle for carbon. Carbon compounds form the bodies and provideall internal energy for all living things.All life relies on four key atmospheric gases – oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen andwater vapour.All are crucial to life, none is a pollutant in the atmosphere.Plants extract carbon dioxide and emit oxygen in order to grow; animals extractoxygen and emit carbon dioxide in order to grow. Carbon is stored in the soil, theoceans, the atmosphere, in living bodies of plants and animals, and in dead animaland plant material such as fossil fuels, construction timber, stored food, dead leavesand dead bodies.Carbon dioxide is the chief agent for recycling carbon resources. Without carbondioxide in the atmosphere, the cycle of life would quickly run down - all plants woulddie, and then all animals would starve.The carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere is always changing, mainly inresponse to changes in surface temperature which then affects the vigour of plantand animal life and affects the carbon balance of the oceans.The surface temperature of the earth is always changing, and current conditions areneither extreme or unexpected. The changes are driven mainly by external factorssuch as the sun.Changing surface temperature is the governor of life – warm oceans expel carbondioxide held in solution: the ocean warmth also causes more evaporation of water.

These three atmospheric conditions (more moisture, more warmth and more carbondioxide) cause an explosion of plant life on land and sea. This then triggers anexplosion of herbivores and carnivores, predators and parasites – mainly theanimals. Cooler temperatures will reverse all that.We live today in one of the usually short warm periods that separate the regular andlonger Ice Ages that punctuate earth’s history. These warm periods are the GoldenAges of history where all life flourishes (including man). While temperature, moistureand carbon dioxide are supplied in abundance, the Golden Age will continue. If solarvariations cause earth’s temperature to fall, moisture and carbon dioxide will alsofall, and Ice Age conditions will return.Man does not control these global events, but he will be shaped by them.The Greenhouse EffectThe sun provides most of the earth’s surface heat, but does not distribute it evenly.The equator gets more heat than the poles, and the heat arrives by day and leavesagain by night. The main agents for moving heat around are ocean currents,atmospheric winds and radiation of heat between oceans, land, atmosphere andspace.A real greenhouse has a glass roof that allows the sun’s heat in and prevents mostof it from leaving. While the sun is shining, the main greenhouse process is physical- the roof totally prevents heat loss by convection ie the hot air cannot escape. Theglass roof also retards the other method of heat loss – radiation of heat into space,but the prevention of convection is the key process.The atmosphere is not a greenhouse – there is no physical roof, so convection(wind) is free to move heat from the surface and the equator to cooler areas.Some atmospheric gases (referred to as Greenhouse gases) have the ability toabsorb some heat escaping from earth and to radiate it back to earth. Thisblanketing effect makes the earth’s surface more livable – otherwise we would fry byday and freeze by night.The major atmospheric gas with greenhouse properties is water vapour, which 3times more effective and 100 times more abundant than carbon dioxide.This whole Greenhouse controversy thus boils down to a panic about a minor butbeneficial effect on surface temperature, by a minor but beneficial atmospheric gas.

Is today’s Temperature of Concern?

The temperature of the earth’s surface varies greatly from hour to hour, from day today, from season to season, from place to place and from century to century. At anygiven time and place, temperatures are always rising or falling for many reasons. Tospeak of “earth’s temperature” and to report it to tiny fractions of a degree, is likemeasuring the diameter of a rusty pipe with a highly accurate micrometer – eachturn of the micrometer screw knocks off another piece of rust and gives anotherdifferent reading, measured to high accuracy.Most alarmist forecasts of future warming are based on models and theories of howthe myriad things that determine earth’s temperatures will interact for decadesahead.However, similarly complex computer models and theories are unable to forecastthe weather with any accuracy beyond 5 days, and forecasts for tomorrow areseldom more accurate than a constant forecast that said “Tomorrow’s weather willbe very similar to today’s”.Even scarier is the fact that economic “Solutions” to global warming (such as a longterm price/tax for carbon) are being designed by economists who are no better thanweather forecasters at forecasting commodity prices.Before we embark on a massive forced contraction and dislocation of our wholecarbon based economy, we need not theories, not models, but EVIDENCE.The best evidence available, from ice cores, tree growth rings, historical records anddirect measurements suggests that neither surface temperatures nor carbon dioxidecontent of the atmosphere are at extreme levels. Moreover, past trends of these twovariables suggest that rising surface temperatures seem to occur well BEFORE thecarbon dioxide content rises ie rising temperature probably causes rising levels ofcarbon dioxide.What does the Carbon Coalition stand for?We believe that vested interests, sensation seeking media, a frightened public andvote seeking politicians are moving the western world swiftly towards extremesolutions that will be very costly to the prosperity of our children and very difficult toreverse. In particular:· we oppose carbon taxes because they are unnecessary and they will pushup the cost of energy, electricity, food and transport for all consumers.· we oppose subsidies for favoured energy sources – these will raise taxes andmake our economy less able to compete with more enlightened economies.

· we oppose legislation mandating shares for any particular energy sourcesuch as solar, wind, gas or ethanol. All consumers and investors should befree to choose which technology to support, but they should not uselegislative means to impose their value judgments on all the rest of us.· we believe public policy should encourage the development of the mostefficient energy sources free of the distortions of all discriminatory taxes,subsidies or mandated shares.· we oppose statutory limits on emissions of man-made carbon dioxidebecause we believe carbon dioxide plays a wholly beneficial role in ouratmosphere. It is NOT a pollutant, nor does it drive global warming.· we oppose the discrimination in favour of trees at the expense of grasses andcrops. Both plant forms extract and store carbon dioxide, but the grasses onland and in the ocean are far more important to the food supplies for thehuman race than the trees. To use discriminatory taxes, subsidies orregulations to favour one plant form over the other has no justification. Thoseplant forms valued by humans for food, fibre, timber, shelter, leisure orpleasure will be conserved and protected. The rest are “weeds” and haveproved quite capable of looking after themselves.· we support market-based conservation of resources and oppose harmfulpollution of water, land or atmosphere.· we support the right of all individuals to use their own funds or skills todiscriminate in favour of or against any energy resource or food for anyreason.Our Activities.The Carbon Coalition aims to:· publicise information on the key role played by carbon in providing food andenergy for mankind.· encourage, conduct and publicise research into all factors that affect globaltemperatures and climate.· produce discussion papers on sound long term public policies for the energyand food industries.· encourage carbon policies which are based on sound science and good longterm economics.

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OUR POSITION ON CLIMATE CHANGE

The Carbon Coalition Against Global Warming takes the following position on Climate Change: It may or may not be happening. It may or may not be caused by CO2 emissions. It may or may not be caused by human activity. It may or may not exist. Members are free to make up their own minds. But what we believe does definitely exist is the market for carbon credits. And we believe billions of dollars will be flowing through these markets. And we believe soil can sequester prodigious amounts of CO2. And we believe that land managers should be rewarded for growing the soil carbon levels on their properties. Stewardship payments are handouts. Farmers want to be paid for what they grow. Regardless of the Climate Change issue, the regeneration of the natural resource base of the agricultural industries is too important to leave it to governments. Let markets address problems created by markets. Free the farmers to trade their soil carbon!